Indo Chinese Noodles

Weekends generally i do not prefer to eat normal routine food. We have been eating a lot of oily and masala stuff for a long time, so i thought of eating something healthy and nutritious yet delicious. I decided to make chinese noodles this time. When it comes to noodles, my preferred choice is always indo chinese fried style. You must really go for it to give a try, if you are a fan of noodles.

Recipe:

Ingredients

One small packet of chinese Noodles. You can get it from any where like safeway, target, walmart etc
2 cups of Shredded vegetables (carrot, green pepper and cabbage)
1/2 cup Spring onion, cut into small pieces
2 Garlic pods diced
3 Green chillies cut into small pieces
2 tbsp Green chilli sauce
1 tbsp Soy sauce
1 tsp Aji-no-moto(MSG)
3 tbsp Oil
4 cups of Water
Salt to taste



Method

Take a big non-stick vessel and boil 4 cups water. Once
the water starts to boil add the noodles and allow them to cook for
5-8 minutes. Noodles should be half done, so do not cook them too soft.
Turn off the flame and drain the water fully and allow the noodles to dry completely for about 10 minutes. Toss the noodles with a table spoon of oil so that the noodles do not stick to each other.

Now heat the frying pan on high flame and add the remaining oil.
To this add the diced garlic and green chillies and fry them for a minute.
Once you get the aroma of the garlic, add the shredded vegetables and fry them for 5 minutes on high flame. We can enjoy the good taste of vegetables and keep the nutritious values, only if they are half cooked. Now add green chilli sauce, soy sauce and aji-no-moto and then fry for 2 minutes. This smell reminds me of the road side chinese food stalls in India. Some people do not like aji-no-moto for various reasons, but i feel you can get the real taste of chinese noodles only when this critical ingredient is added. Finally add salt and mix them well so that salts gets evenly distributed. Add the dried noodles and fry them well on high flame for about 5 to 8 minutes. The noodles have to be fried until they are dry and do not stick to the bottom of the frying pan.



Your chinese noodles are ready. Serve them hot.

Vegetable Dum Biryani

Spring is here with lovely weather and its time to spend time outside. This weekend some of my friends arranged a potluck dinner to take advantage of the good weather and i was given the choice of preparing spicy biryani. Me and my husband have a great inclination to the taste of biryani than anything else when it comes to a choice of rice variety.

Ingredients:



2 cups Mixed Vegetables(Potato,Carrot,Cauliflower,Beans,Peas)
6 Green chillies (slit lengthwise)
1 Onion (optional - cut length wise, fried till brown)
lemon juice




6 cloves
4 green cardamom pods
2 black cardamom pods
1 inch Cinnamon stick
1 tsp fennel seeds
4 bay leaves
2 tsp Ginger-Garlic paste
pinch of saffron
pinch of orange color(optional)
2 cups yogurt
6 tbsp of vegetable oil
2 tbsp of salt
lemon juice

2 cups Basmati rice

Preparation: For Dum Biryani, we need to marinate the vegetables and spices in yogurt so that they give aromatic flavor and taste. First Heat oil in a pan and fry all the mixed vegetables for about 10 minutes and keep them aside. Now take a medium sized bowl and add cloves, green cardamom, black cardamom, cinnamon stick, fennel seeds, ginger garlic paste and green chillies. Add yogurt and mix them well with one table spoon of salt and lemon juice each. Now add the fried vegetables including the oil, to the above mixture and keep it closed tightly for about 2 to 3 hours based on your time. The more you leave it to marinate, better the taste. Once it is marinated heat the pan again, add the marination and boil for about 10 minutes. turn off the stove and start preparing the rice.

Wash and soak the rice for 15 minutes and cook the rice in a vessel using 2 cups of water. Add a tablespoon of ghee, bay leaves and one table spoon of salt while cooking the rice. Adding ghee will keep the rice grainy and separates evenly. Let it cool for 10 minutes and then spread the rice evenly on a large plate.

Now mix the saffron with 4 table spoons of warm milk. Additionally you can also add a pinch of red color to the milk, if you want the biryani to be multi colored.

Its time to finish the background preparation and start the final process. Now take a aluminium foil container/casserole and first add the boiled marination then the rice. Randomly mix the rice with marination and make sure you are not mixing them completely. You can use a non-stick vessel also instead of aluminium foil container.
Finally sprinkle the saffron/red color milk over the rice mixture randomly. You like onions, you can sprinkle them also. Close the container tightly with aluminum foil/lid.

Preheat the oven to 400F and place the container for 25 minutes. Let it cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Hello World !!!

I have been waiting for a long time to start blogging and sharing my cooking experiments with you all. Though there are many web sites to look around, still each and everyone of us have many new recipes to share and so i started thinking of recipe blogging and finally I am hopping on today.

My husband gives me a lot of ideas to cook and helps me to get an image as to how the recipe should look and taste. He cooks very well and his ideas helps me to make tasty and relishing food. He is the inspiration behind my motivation.

I will try to keep the recipes simple and very creative so that everybody can try without spending much time and effort.

I cook with passion and dedicate my recipes to all the food lovers.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome and you can mail me at lavanya.rk@gmail.com

I hope everybody enjoys reading my blogs.

-Lavanya

About Me

Iam a housewife and we live in virginia USA. I have a 18 months old daughter who is very naughty.

I enjoy cooking and used to cook even in my teens. But when I got married and started to cook everyday, it was a kind of responsibility. We are food lovers and my husband is a very picky eater. So eventually from responsibility I changed my attitude into passion. Now i love to cook good food with lots of variety.

My mom and my mother-in-law are very good cooks and they cook simple traditional food. I love to eat only when there is variety and so does my hubby. So i started cooking trying various innovations. Belive me some of the recipes in my blogs are my own creations. So i will share both my innovations and tasty simple recipes of my mom and mother-in-law which i miss a lot. I learnet most of the recipes from my mom, when i cook them they do not turn out so well. The reason is very simple, that it is the love with which she cooks.

All of us relish the authentic taste of our indian food. Far away from our motherland i miss our great food. Indian food has so much of variety that though there are so many sites to look around, still each and everyone of us have many new recipes to share. This idea made me think of blogging. I cook with passion and i would like to share my recipes with you all.

I dedicate my recipes to all the food lovers and I hope everybody enjoys reading my blogs. I will try to keep the recipes simple yet creative.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome.


Thanks
have fun blogging

~Lavanya